Brian Cruz (Earth-616)

Tag
Name	Brian Cruz
Current Alias	Tag
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Formerly Hellions Training Squad, Xavier Institute student body
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Height	5′9″ (1.75 m)
Weight	175 lbs (79.38 kg)
Eyes	Irises: Brown
Hair	Brown
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Mutant
Living Status	Alive; formerly deceased
Reality	Earth-616
Cause of Death	Killed by Purifiers (resurrected by The Five)
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	Puerto Rican, American, Krakoan
Occupation	Adventurer; former student
Base of Operations	Krakoa, Pacific Ocean Formerly Xavier Institute
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, Carlo Barberi
First	New Mutants (Vol. 2) #10 (March, 2004)
First	New Mutants (Vol. 2) #10 (March, 2004)

History

Tag and Icarus

Brian came to Emma Frost's attention after the rebuilding of the school and joined the Hellions Squad, taking the codename Tag. He never questioned Hellion’s orders, and often eagerly went along with the squad’s plans.

When all his fellow Hellions had their wishes granted by The Kingmaker, Brian wished that they would still all stay together and hang out.

After most of the world's mutants lost their powers on M-Day, Emma Frost decided it would be best if non-powered students left the school. While some left early, Tag stuck around the mansion as long as possible. After he and several other mutants (including Dryad and Network) said goodbye to their friends, they climbed on a bus leaving Xavier's. Unfortunately the bus was destroyed by a missile launched by William Stryker's Purifiers. Tag and the others who were on the bus were killed.

Many years later, Brian resurfaced in the newly-founded mutant nation of Krakoa, having been presumably reborn and repowered by the hand of The Five, a group of mutants capable of combining their powers into a process of resurrection, brought together by Charles Xavier as part of his plans for mutant ascension. Tag appeared talking to Bevatron with his old Hellions Squad, living on the Akademos Habitat. He attended the Academy X reunion along with many of his former classmates who had been resurrected.

Tag was part of Bishop's response team to offer aid to the people of Milford. Using his mutant gifts, Tag was able to "tag" buildings and vehicles to assist with evacuation.

Attributes

Power Grid

Powers

Pariah Effect: Tag had a very unusual psionic ability. He was capable of tagging a person making the person become "it." When he touched someone he used a form of telepathy that caused them to emit a psionic signal, making them a target for others to run away from or to run toward. He could choose the number of people who would be affected by this strange "tag" game.

Once during a training session he "tagged" Hellion making the New Mutants Squad run away from him while leaving his teammates unaffected.

The effect stopped when the victim or victims reached a distance of about 100 feet or so. This "tag" game could also work the other way around making all the people want to run toward the person he "tagged" and crumbling altogether on top of the person "tagged".

The person "tagged" wasn't affected by his powers, but all the others that he chose were compelled to do so without choice and usually they were fully aware of what was happening but weren't able to control themselves. His powers also worked in other ways like "tagging" a person to run away from himself if he desired him to do so. In this manner he "tagged" a person and the person just started to run away with no control whatsoever and he didn't even know why. When he touched someone he always said "you're it!".

See Also

• 25 appearance(s) of Brian Cruz (Earth-616)
• 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Brian Cruz (Earth-616)
• 6 minor appearance(s) of Brian Cruz (Earth-616)
• 6 mention(s) of Brian Cruz (Earth-616)
• 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Brian Cruz (Earth-616)
• 20 image(s) of Brian Cruz (Earth-616)

Links and References

• Brian Cruz on Marvel.com